Good morning. So
Peter just told them that basically they were responsible for the death of
Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Repent, and
each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we will see much
later, it seems that at this point in time they believed that you could not
receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit without first being baptized in water.
It appears that that idea did not change until chapter 10 after God baptized
Cornelius and his family in the Holy Spirit before they were water baptized.
Now lest someone think that this was just for the people in the first century
Peter then says, for the promise (of the Father - baptism in the Holy Spirit)
is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord
our God will call to Himself. That means us! And with many other words he
solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved from this
perverse generation! So then, those who had received his words were baptized;
and that day there were added about 3000 souls. Notice that they were first
water baptized. It does not say whether or not they received the baptism in the
Holy Spirit after that. They were continually devoting themselves to the
apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Father help this to be a beautiful day for the reader and his/her family. Help
them to come closer together to each other and to You.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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